SOURCE: Fleishman, Avrom. “Master and Servant in Little Dorrit.” Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 14, no. 4 (autumn 1974): 575-86.

In the following essay, Fleishman examines class inequality and the way it determines character in Little Dorrit.

In these people, the social will, the will to status, is the ruling faculty. To be recognized, deferred to, and served—this is their master passion.

—Lionel Trilling

The human relationship most frequently found in the world of Little Dorrit is that of master and servant. Often these are the stated roles of the characters: Casby and Pancks, the Meagles and Tattycoram, Mrs. Clennam and the Flintwinches. The activities of several other important personages consist mainly in giving and receiving service. Rigaud/Blandois' bullying employment of Cavalletto is merely the extreme case of a relation that governs almost all life. It includes the central situation in the plot: the life-long dedication of the heroine...